Camplin and co - players who helped keep Town CC on the map
I WAS very interested to read Don Clifton’s article about the impact overseas players had made at Cleethorpes Cricket Club during their time in the Yorkshire League. Having spent 21 seasons scoring and watching Grimsby Town CC, who play their cricket in Lincolnshire, I thought I would look at cricket from a different angle and focus on the players we have seen develop in our area and gone on to play representative cricket and make a big impact in league cricket.
As my involvement with Grimsby began in the late 1970s, I will not go back to the mid 1960s when cricket in Lincolnshire was at its strongest and when the League Representative Side won the Rothmans KO Trophy (a national competition for all leagues) on three occasions.
Instead I will focus on developments since the 1980s and players who played both then and after the formation of the Lincolnshire ECB Premier League in 2000.
Both Grimsby Town and Cleethorpes had strong sides in the early 1980s and dominated the Lincolnshire County Premier League. The league used to be decided by the percentage of points a team gained and in 1982 there was a thrilling title battle as Grimsby claimed the title with 79 per cent compared to Cleethorpes who finished on 78 per cent. This was a great achievement by Grimsby because Cleethorpes were at their strongest back then and indeed won the title in 1980, 1981 and 1983 before leaving for the challenge of the Yorkshire League.
Cleethorpes had the strongest batting line-up in the league with openers Mike Birmingham and
Andy Dolan being followed by three top quality batsmen in Martin Maslin, Bob Leafe and John Sunley.
The Meggies also had some impressive seam bowlers with Rod Sanders, Steve Bartlett and Jeff Todd sharing the duties.
So, for Grimsby to win the League in 1982, it was quite an achievement and they also won the LSG Sunday League to complete a unique double and beat sides such as Sleaford and Lindum from South of the county. The Grimsby side was led by the legendary seamer Brian Camplin who played for Lincolnshire CCC between 1960 and 1972 and also represented the League in the successful Rothman Trophy side. Brian was a one-club man who started playing in 1956 and was still making life difficult for batsmen in the early 1990s.
He took 45 wickets during the 1982 league campaign at an incredible average of 9.6, whilst only conceding 1.96 runs per over. Indeed Grimsby’s strength was their bowling attack, which included quick bowlers Steve Braithwaite and Pete Williams, in addition to some excellent slow bowling from George Thompson (43 wickets) and left-armer Pete Wood.
In those days, games were played on uncovered pitches so the batsmen had to work hard for their runs, but Grimsby had signed the best batsman in the league. Neil Priestley, who had just been released by Northamptonshire CCC, joined the club and travelled over from his home in Epworth to play for Town.
Priestley was a left-handed batsman with a sound technique and also kept wicket. He scored 633 runs at an average of 52.75 to win the League batting award and also took 15 catches and claimed 11 stumpings. He played for Lincolnshire CCC between 1983 and 1990 and his only first class game for Northants was against the Sri
Lankan tourists in 1981. Grimsby were very successful in the 1980s claiming the title again in 1984, 1985 and 1988. Pete Wood took over from Camplin as captain in 1985 but Brian remained in the side as an effective medium pacer. Wood and off-spinner Dave Allen became the dominant bowlers for Town, both picking up over 40 wickets in 1985 and were well supported by Braithwaite and Camplin. Although Camplin’s pace slowed as the years went by, he was still the most accurate bowler in the league, conceding 1.69 runs per over!
Spinners Allen and Wood, along with allrounder Braithwaite, went on to play for Lincolnshire CCC having represented the Lincolnshire ‘A’ team in games against first-class county second teams. These three players had the ‘pleasure’ of playing against a fired-up youngster called Phil De Freitas at Grace Road who was warned by the umpire for excessive use of the bouncer. De Freitas went on to play for England in 44 Tests and over 100 One Day Internationals. Although Grimsby have not had as many overseas players as Cleethorpes, they have had a number of youngsters come over from abroad who have made an impact. The first of these was Troy Rafton a young Aussie batsman who won the League Batting Award in 1998. One year later, Town won the title again, under the leadership of Wood, in their final season in the league before joining the newly formed Lincolnshire ECB Premier League. Morne Van Schalkwyk from Johannesburg was the successful overseas player and Keith Tillison won the League Bowling Award.
In 2011, George Linde a left-arm spinner and all-rounder came over from Cape Town and made a huge impression at the club. In recent years he has become established in the Cape Cobras side and when South Africa toured India recently he was called up to make his Test debut in the third match of the series, taking four wickets in India’s only innings.
Pete Wood continued to play for Town in the early years of the ECB Premier League but the bulk of Grimsby’s side were talented young players developed by Graham Harneiss and his team of coaches at the club.
Twins Simon and Dan Webb arrived at Grimsby Town Cricket Club as talented badminton players but left as well respected and successful cricketers. Simon played for Lincolnshire CCC between 2001 and 2007 and Dan went on to captain the British Army side and toured with them in Pakistan.
Leg spinner Jon Miller and opening batsman Richard Antcliffe played a couple of games for Lincolnshire and Neal Snell and Scott Harneiss represented the county at age group cricket and played for the Lincolnshire Development side.
Miller who now plays in the Nottinghamshire ECB Premier League for Caythorpe CC has taken 435 wickets in Lincolnshire with his well flighted leg breaks.
Antcliffe captained Grimsby for many seasons and the Brigg based player was a leading batsman in the ECB Premier League, scoring over 6000 league runs, with 10 centuries and 36 half centuries. The gritty left hander has never really been replaced by Grimsby and his departure and the slow break up of Harneiss’s side saw Grimsby struggle.
A couple of ‘outsiders’ helped to make Grimsby competitive when they first entered the ECB Premier League. Ollie Burford, the Lincolnborn wicket-keeper batsman, who was a mainstay of the Lincolnshire CCC side for 14 seasons played for Town.
The other player who Grimsby employed was left-arm swing bowler Kristian Adams, who formed a highly effective partnership with Matthew Cocks. Adams was a former Cleethorpes CC junior who had spent time on the staff of Kent CCC and played one first class game. Adams was a prolific wicket taker and certainly benefited from the accurate support Cocks provided at the other end. Grimsby’s talented young side had their best chance of winning the Lincolnshire ECB Premier League in 2007, when they finished runners up to the mighty Bracebridge Heath. Grimsby just lacked that little bit of belief needed to complete the task and the Lincoln side possessed a battery of fast bowlers who few clubs could cope with.
Town did though experience some success in the cup as they won the Winkworth Trophy in both 2004 and 2008.
Sadly, with players moving away from the area, to further their careers, and the departure of coach Graham Harneiss and captain Antcliffe, the Club struggled as the side broke up.
In recent years the number of juniors coming through and making a mark has reduced but three players have gone on to be successful in the ECB Premier League and play for Lincolnshire CCC. Harry Warwick is now playing his club cricket at Townville CC in the Bradford ECB Premier League. Warwick, although not a fixture in the Lincolnshire line up, played a couple of seasons during which the County won the Eastern Division of the MCCA Championship and he achieved a top score of 99 against Hertfordshire.
Steve Crossley is widely regarded as the best wicket-keeper in the county and is now scoring runs consistently for Bourne CC. He also achieved something of note when he played for York CC for one season. Whilst studying at Leeds Met University, Steve played for the Yorkshire League heavyweights who were coached by Jim Love, a former England, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire player when they achieved the rare feat of winning both the Yorkshire League and National Club KO Championship in 2012.
Dan Cliffe is playing his cricket for Scunthorpe Town and has helped lead a revival there which has seen the Steelmen win the Lincolnshire County Premier League and establish themselves in the ECB Premier League. Although these three players have had to leave Grimsby to find ECB cricket, all three are actively involved at Augusta Street, either helping coach the juniors or providing entertainment on GTCC Knockout nights.
It is sad to see both Grimsby and Cleethorpes not playing ECB cricket at the moment but both clubs have a number of juniors in the County Youth squads and are trying to promote cricket in North East Lincolnshire. Let’s hope these youngsters can be inspired and supported by those players who have gone before them and you never know both clubs may experience success again.